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Prisoner releases delayed, Afghan gov’t sets condition
The National Security Council says that if the Taliban does not guarantee that the prisoners will not go back to fighting, none of them will be released adding that they can’t be let go under name of “peace” and return back to battlefields.
Sources close to the Taliban underline that the government’s plan of releasing prisoners will take four months which is an explicit violation of the US-Taliban deal.
The government, however, said that the release was stopped, and if it is not guaranteed that it will not return to the battlefield, none of them will be released.
Jawid Faisal, the NSC Spokesperson, said, “The Afghan government has prepared a mechanism to direct and seize opportunities for peace. Dealing with the given list and releasing the prisoners are parts of the mechanism as we don’t want them to return to the battlefield.”
On the other hand, the Taliban insist that unless the 5000 prisoners are released, they will not step into the Intra-Afghan talks with the Afghan government.
Jalaluddin Shinwari, the Taliban’s former attorney general, said, “The government has a plan on releasing the prisoners in four months. It will endanger the process.”
This comes as Islamabad wants both the US and the Taliban to honor the deal and help Afghans reach their demands through negotiations.
Pakistani FM Shah Mahmoud Quraishi called the Taliban “clever and smart” as he thinks that the Taliban are not only good fighters but also good negotiators.
Quraishi underlines that the Taliban understood the challenges before the negotiations, noting that the Taliban have control over 45% of Afghan territory for real and “truth be accepted”.
Some of the civil activists gathered in Kabul and expressed their opposition and concerns regarding the Taliban prisoner release.
Silay Ghafar, the spokesperson of the Afghan National Solidarity Party, said, “The Taliban have violated democracy in the last two decades. They have killed millions of Afghans. Releasing them means dishonoring the blood of martyrs.”
A group of 100 Taliban prisoners was supposed to be released Saturday – as per the US-Taliban agreement.
Pakistan’s government on Friday extended the stay of Afghan refugees in the country till June 30, amid repatriation of illegal foreign nationals.
There are around 1.3 million registered Afghans living in Pakistan, according to a spokesman for UN refugee agency UNHCR in Islamabad, Dawn newspaper reported.
“On the recommendation of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, the federal cabinet approved the extension of the validity of PoR cards of Afghan refugees from April 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024,” said an official statement, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The PoR cardholders will be repatriated in the third phase of the plan that will begin after the repatriation of “illegal foreign nationals” residing in Pakistan is completed, the statement added.
The PoR card holders avail schools, bank accounts and other facilities in Pakistan.
Repatriation of undocumented refugees began on November 1 and continues. More than 500,000 Afghans have been expelled so far.
John Bass, US acting under secretary of state for political affairs, will travel to Qatar and Pakistan April 26-30, US State Department announced on Friday.
In Doha, Qatar, he will meet with senior Qatari government officials and other diplomatic missions to discuss support for Afghanistan and shared security interests in the region, US State Department said in a statement.
In Islamabad, Pakistan, Under Secretary Bass will meet with senior Pakistani government officials to discuss a range of regional and bilateral issues as part of the U.S.-Pakistani partnership, the statement added.
John Bass served as US ambassador to Afghanistan under Donald Trump administration between December 2017 and January 2020.
A tripartite meeting between the delegations of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was held in Kabul with the aim of connecting North Asia to South Asia and reducing transit and transportation costs among these three countries, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce said in a statement.
In this meeting, an agreement was reached on the creation of a joint technical committee to continue the talks.
This tripartite meeting was held under the leadership of Nooruddin Azizi, the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Vice President of Turkmenistan and Srik Zhumangarin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
Earlier, a bilateral meeting was held between the delegation of the Islamic Emirate and Turkmenistan. The ministry of commerce said the participants of the meeting discussed the construction of a large joint logistics center in Torghondi, the trilateral transit agreement between the IEA, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, the expansion of Afghanistan’s railway, solving issues related to Afghan transit and export goods, and a number of other commercial issues.
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